As promised, a man delivered the blueprints of the Ancient ship to Rodney's room less than ten minutes after Maje had brought him back. It didn't escape Rodney that the man delivering the plans locked the door when he left.
Rodney unrolled the plans. They were incredibly detailed, including every conduit, every wire and every subroutine of the ship. For a people who where not familiar with the Ancient technology, the plans were an amazing achievement. The Ymanhin knew a lot about the ship, they had had two centuries to explore it. Rodney was relatively certain that Maje had bought his excuse of having to study the energy distribution systems, but in the future he would have to think carefully when stalling for time.
Despite the situation, having the plans to an Ancient ship, was a unique opportunity. A blueprint didn't replace running tests on the systems, but from the pans alone, Rodney could see that the ship was based on an entirely different type of technology than the puddle jumpers. Although the Atlantis team had put considerable efforts into studying he propulsion and weapons systems of the puddle jumpers, in the hopes of being able to recreate the technology, they didn't fully understand it yet. But still, Rodney could tell, that this ship was not based on the same technology. In a way it made sense, the puddle jumpers had a relatively small mass and were limited in speed. From mission, they know that extra power use, for example, buy cloaking the jumper or turning on the shield, the maximum speed was reduced. So if the Puddle Jumper's engine system was already maxed out on a ship the mass of the Jumpers, it would be insufficient for a much larger, heavier ship. Still, the propulsion system of the ship the Ymanhin found didn't even look related. If it hadn't been for the ZPM powering the ship and the familiar architecture, Rodney wouldn't even have identified the technology as Ancient.
Rodney laid out the blueprints on the floor, as they wouldn't fit on the worktable. There were plans of thirteen decks.
He had seen everything on his tour of the ship with Maje, but the plans provided him with insight on just what possibilities were lying dormant in the gigantic ships.
Deck one was the command deck. From what he had seen, everything was still intact. The interfaces very just like the ones in the City. From the control deck, every function on the ship could be controlled. The specs of the drive had been carefully drawn out by the Ymanhin engineers. Rodney couldn't help his excitement. If his instincts were right, and he was rarely wrong when it came to science, the drive was something that was not just beyond the Puddle Jumpers engine system, but also beyond the Asgard's hyper drive technology. Granted he had not been able to study the Asgard technology at the live object, but he had read every piece every written about it by SGC scientists. And not just because he liked the way Sam Carter wrote.
A drive that was capable to reach distant galaxies in a matter of days. A ship that could withstand that kind of stress had to be built of an exceptional material. A resistant, but light alloy.
Decks two, three and four housed the drive system and engineering controls. From the plans alone couldn't figure out all of what was going on on those decks, but he could tell that that separated power system upheld life-support, drive control and weapons. Now Rodney could see how the ZPM figured into the ship's systems. The ZPM supplied power to power cell for the separate power systems. Rodney made a note to check out the power cells on his next visits to the ship. Even though the ZPM was depleted it was possible that there was some change that there was residual energy left in one of the power cells. It might go a long way towards giving show for the Ymanhin. But Rodney doubted that there was energy left in any system, because everything had remained dark and silent when he had been there.
Rodney started to fully understand the enormity as he worked his way through the rest of the blue prints, deck by deck. Decks six, seven and eight were crew quarters, and based on Rodney quick count; there was space for a crew of around 500. Decks nine and ten held labs, a medical centre, and some more installations Rodney didn't recognize, but he guessed fell under the Ancients idea of entertainment. Decks eleven and twelve were empty, probably for cargo. When Rodney got to the floor plan of the thirteenth deck, he looked at it and frowned. While all the other plans had been incredibly detailed, this showed only a few outlines, but most of the space was shaded. Rodney noticed that the shaded areas were behind doors equipped with a special lock. Rodney didn't recognize it from the plan; it was much more complicated than the gene-activated door-locks in Atlantis. The locks in deck thirteen were independent of the ships systems, each powered by a small power cell, that kept the lock in place, even if the main power of the ship failed. Someone really wanted to keep strangers off this deck. Maje had not shown him down to this deck. He had to examine those locks. They were the only thing still working on this ship and someone had designed them to last that long for a reason. The Ancients had built nothing without a failsafe, and Rodney had feeling the failsafe might be hidden on deck thirteen.
oOo
Elizabeth had finally gone to bed after her message to the Ymanhin government wasn't answered. She had checked by her people in the infirmary, then she had finally had that shower she had been longing for and had crawled into bed. As exhausted as she was, sleep did not come easily. She fell asleep eventually, but kept waking up, fragment of a dream lingering in her mind. She couldn't recall what she had dreamt about, she could only feel herself gasping for breath. She could hardly hear the knocking on her door over the pounding of her heart. She hadn't realized what had woken her. Figuring it had to be important; Elizabeth got out of bed and went to open the door, without bothering to dress. The door slid open and revealed a concerned looking Dr. Alley.
"Dr. Alley? What is it? Why didn't you call me on the radio?"
"I apologize, but you weren't answering your radio. It's Dr. Beckett. His condition, it has gotten worse." Dr. Alley fidgeted with his shirt.
Elizabeth wasn't sure why Dr. Alley was at her door in the middle of the night. If he needed medical advice he should have gone to Dr. Biro. She looked at Dr. Alley questioningly.
"Dr. Weir, I talked to Dr. Biro and she is as puzzled as I am. Dr. Beckett is suffering from progressive organ failure. We think it is a reaction to the nano-bots the Ymanhin used."
"I thought the procedure went fine." Dr. Weir was stunned.
"Everything was fine as long as the nano-bots were active, now that their job is done, they are not properly dissolving. They should be absorbed into the system, but in Dr. Beckett's case, he developed toxicity from the absorbed nano-bots. The damage started happening within minutes. There is nothing we can do to stop it."
Elizabeth closed her eyes for a moment. This couldn't be happening. She had thought Carson was going to be all right. Now this.
"The Ymanhin haven't responded to our message yet." Elizabeth thought out loud. "The Sergeant Stackhouse's exploration team found two stasis units a while ago. Can you place Dr. Beckett in stasis?"
"It is possible, but risky. His condition will continue to worsen even while he is in stasis. He might not survive the revival process." Dr. Alley cautioned.
oOo
Elizabeth and Radek sat in the make-shift waiting room in front of the infirmary. Dr. Alley had woken Radek to help with the technical aspects of the stasis unit. Now all Elizabeth and Radek could do was wait. Carson was in critical condition and Dr. Alley was not certain whether they could put him in stasis in time.
To Elizabeth, it seemed like they had waited for an eternity, when Dr Alley entered the waiting room.
"I have bad news, I'm afraid. We were just initializing the stasis process, when Dr. Beckett suffered a massive stroke. There was nothing we could do. I'm sorry." Dr. Alley conveyed the bad news.
"Was there a problem with the stasis unit?" Radek asked, needing to know whether he had overlooked something.
"No, Dr. Zelenka, you did everything you could. The stasis unit was working perfectly as far as I can tell." Dr. Alley reassured Radek.
Elizabeth swallowed, and then formulated her question. "What was the cause of the stroke?"
"I can't say with certainty, but my best guess it was a result of the nano-bots absorbing into his system." Dr. Alley explained.
"Is it possible that it was the result of an injury he suffered in the fire?" Elizabeth asked.
"Next to impossible. His injuries were not life threatening." Dr. Alley replied. "The technology of the Ymanhin simply seems incompatible with our physiology. It works to an amazing extent, but..."
"I expect your written report by tonight." Elizabeth shook her head. She didn't need medical theories now. She needed some time alone. She checked her watch. It was almost four in the morning. She might just have to chance to have some quiet time. Elizabeth was about the leave for her quarters when Dr. Alley spoke.
"Dr. Weir, what are was supposed to do with the remains?"
Elizabeth was surprised by Dr. Alley's neutral tone, but supposed that in his field of work, a certain distance to death was a necessary habit.
"Bring him down to level 15. Dr. Beckett left a last will and testament on file. I will give instructions for the funeral arrangements tomorrow." Elizabeth replied. Right now, the idea of Carson's death seemed preposterous, she could see him, hear him. He couldn't be dead. It was just not possible. Elizabeth walked back to her office on autopilot. She locked the door behind herself and sat down on her desk. She knew she should be pulling Carson's file, but doing that would be acknowledging what happened and she wasn't ready to do that just yet. Right now, Elizabeth wished she had never heard of the Ymanhin.
TBC